Protecting forests from climate change: We look forward to receiving Guyana’s submission – US State Dept spokesperson

Even as the Government of Guyana negotiates its forest pact with the Kingdom of Norway and is currently searching for markets to sell its carbon credit, the country could potentially earn from a global public-private initiative that was launched back in April to accelerate climate action by providing results-based finance to countries committed to protecting their tropical forests.
The Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF) Coalition was established by the United States, United Kingdom and Norway along with nine leading private sector companies to provide substantial financial support to tropical and subtropical countries that successfully reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

This initiative aims to mobilise at least $1 billion in financing that will be used for the protection of tropical forests, to the benefit of billions of people depending on them, and to support sustainable development. It was reported that the final list of governments and companies participating in the LEAF initiative, and the total financial support mobilised through the Coalition, will be announced when emissions reduction purchase agreements are signed with tropical forest countries by the end of the year.
“We understand that Guyana, like a number of other jurisdictions, is considering submitting a proposal and we look forward to receiving their submission,” a spokesperson from the US State Department told Guyana Times.
This was in response to questions from this newspaper on climate financing and support from the US to Guyana.
Amongst its pledges to the global climate fight, President Joe Biden has committed to double overall climate financing and triple the amount of finance going towards adaptation in countries that need help in managing climate impacts.
In fact, the State Department spokesperson posited that the US is working to increase global climate ambitions through bi-lateral engagement and multilateral and regional initiatives, like the Renewable Energy for Latin America and Caribbean initiative and Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF) Coalition.“ President Biden has also directed US agencies to integrate climate considerations across their global initiatives. Confronting the climate crisis presents a historic opportunity to create jobs and sustainable economic growth. As we work to reduce emissions, we resolve to strengthen adaptation and resilience to protect people from the impacts of climate change,” the official stated.
Further, the spokesperson noted that the United States is also reinvigorating the US-Caribbean Resilience Partnership (USCRP), which Guyana is a part of. The partnership works to increase disaster preparedness and enhance resilience in the Caribbean Island countries through technical cooperation between the United States, Caribbean countries, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), and the Regional Security System (RSS).
Already, US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch has stated that Guyana will be a good partner in the United States’ climate efforts.
Nevertheless, at the launch of the LEAF initiative during President Biden’s Leaders’ Summit on Climate back in April, Guyana’s Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo welcomed the initiative, stating that countries like Guyana have long pressed for the ecosystem services provided by their standing tropical forests to be properly valued, through both public and private finance.
“This will enable people who live in forests and forest countries to create jobs and economic opportunity from an economy that works with nature, instead of today’s reality where forests are often worth more dead than alive. If this new economy is to be more attractive than the old economy, LEAF must also catalyse funds that flow quickly and efficiently. The systems to enable this can only be successful if forest countries are involved in their design – and we stand ready to work with the LEAF Coalition to achieve the innovation required,” Jagdeo posited.
The Vice President, who has long championed the use of forests in climate mitigation, previously explained that the forests tend to lose a lot of ground in the global fight against the climate crisis since developed countries are more focused on retrofitting buildings or mitigation solutions that deal with decarbonising energy.
Jagdeo’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) saw Guyana being paid some US$250 million from Norway following the 2009 pact. Funds are still remaining from that deal and have been redirected towards the local renewable energy sector.
The agreement, which covered a five-year period, was not renewed under the previous APNU/AFC coalition, and so, the current PPP/C Administration is now renegotiating a new deal with Norway under a revised LCDS programme. Those discussions are still ongoing.
However, President Dr Irfaan Ali had announced back in April that Guyana has signed a letter of intent to market Guyana’s carbon credit – an arrangement that has the potential of earning the country millions of US dollars annually.
This new deal was inked with US-based non-profit organisation (NGO), Emergent Finance Accelerated Inc, which is one of the nine private partners in the LEAF Coalition and is the administrative coordinator of the initiative.
Based on the agreement with the Guyana Government, Emergent will look for markets to sell Guyana’s carbon credit through a credit contract.
A carbon credit is a tradable permit or certificate that allows the holder of the credit the right to emit a tonne of carbon dioxide or an equivalent of another greenhouse gas. Countries that exceed this limit can purchase carbon credits from other nations that have low emissions such as Guyana.
Guyana’s 18.4 million hectares of largely pristine forest stores approximately 5.31 gigatons of carbon.
However, while there is little focus on forests as a carbon sink, United States Renewable Energy Specialist, Jeffrey Logan believes that developed countries need to play a greater role in assisting emerging economies to preserve their forests.
Logan, who is an Associate Director of Energy, Policy, and Analysis of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI) at the University of Colorado, USA, was one of the presenters during a three-week Virtual Report Tour (VRT) on “Combatting the Climate Crisis Through US Innovation” sponsored by the US Department of State’s Foreign Press Centers back in May.
Logan told Guyana Times that for countries like Guyana, it’s neighbour Brazil – both of which are part of the Amazon Rainforest and the Guiana Shield – and even Indonesia, forests are an extremely important part of the carbon calculus.
“There are a growing number of carbon offsets available to investors around the world that want to help preserve forests in emerging economies. Unfortunately, the rules are often somewhat unclear even if the goal is clear: developed countries should help developing countries to preserve their forests as carbon sinks as this is a win-win for both parties if done properly,” he stated. (Vahnu Manikchand)